Science for the Curious

Science for the Curious

Author Guidelines for the Illinois Science Council Blog

The editors invite contributions from graduate students and scientists in industry and academic settings. Writers can come from any scientific field, but they must all adhere to our editorial guidelines for non-academic and noncommercial writing. If you’d like to submit an idea for an article, fill out this form.

Audience and Tone:

Blog articles are written in a casual style for an enthusiastic, but non-expert, audience. The purpose of the blog is not merely to disseminate facts, but to get people excited about science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.

The editors typically go through one or two rounds of edits with the writer and agree on a final draft before publishing, and the ISC will promote the writer’s article on the the ISC’s social media pages.

Guidelines:

Reading Level: Our readers are educated science-enthusiasts, but they are not experts in what you are writing about. Please avoid technical language and jargon. If you must use an unfamiliar term, define it when you first use it.

Word Count: 800-1200 words. For information on a longer, more in-depth series, please contact the editors.

Objectivity: Content cannot explicitly promote any company or its products/services. Writers, however, may promote non-profit causes at the editors’ discretion.

Exclusivity: Drafts should not have been published previously and should be submitted to the Illinois Science Council on an exclusive basis. All drafts are subject to review and editing. The editors make all decisions regarding publication of articles.

Images: All content should be accompanied by images. Photos and graphics either have to be free license, or you must cite the image’s creator in the caption. When appropriate, you may also use your own images. Please send photos as separate attachments or direct links, and include the captions either in the document or in the body of your email.

Topics: For a sample of the variety of topics we cover, visit the blog. The Illinois Science Council covers anything related to STEM. We prefer topics related to Illinois/the Midwest, although we will accept any topic as long as it suits the style of the blog.

Payment: Since we are a non-profit organization, all of our writers contribute articles on a volunteer basis only.

Other Specifications:

Author Credit: Please include a blurb about yourself at the end of your post in the format: “[Your Name] [degrees] is a [job title] at [place of work]. [other credentials related to the subject matter] [contact/personal website/social media information of your choosing]”. You must include a headshot.

References: If the information is important enough to be cited, or if there more to learn on a particular topic, please cite within the text of the article using hyperlinks.